ATF Acting Director gets quizzed in confirmation hearing

ATF Acting Director B. Todd Jones on Tuesday advanced his bid to be the embattled bureau’s first confirmed director in seven years, telling a Senate panel he was committed to raising the profile of “an agency in distress.’’

With just over 5,000 employees and a $1.1 billion budget, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives enforces federal gun laws and is the longtime favorite whipping boy of the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights activists.

But in Tuesday’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jones stressed his desire to move beyond mistakes of the past such as the botched Operation Fast and Furious, in which Phoenix-based agents observed gun purchases by Mexican drug cartel middlemen instead of interdicting them.

Jones, who also serves as U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, told senators that when he arrived as acting ATF director in September 2011, “I found an agency in distress. Poor morale undermined the efforts of the overwhelming majority of ATF.’’

Since then, Jones said he’d conducted what amounts to a purge of senior managers, appointing 23 new top executives at ATF’s headquarters here and replacing 22 special agents in charge of 27 field divisions.

“Since my arrival, I have worked to refocus the bureau on its mission to combat violent crime and to enhance public safety,’’ he said. “I’m proud to say that the men and women at ATF have responded with professionalism and dedication.’’

The fact that ATF has not had a confirmed director since 2006 _ the year Congress voted to require Senate confirmation for the position _ is playing a major role in Senate backers’ efforts to win confirmation for Jones.

“Something is wrong when the Senate fails to confirm the head of an agency for seven years,’’ said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., a fellow Minnesotan who chaired the confirmation hearing. “Something is wrong when we have ATF agents, over 2,000 of them, on the front lines of major investigations like the Boston Marathon bombing . . . and yet the Senate still will not confirm a permanent leader of this agency.’’

Jones said that being a Senate-confirmed director “does carry a certain amount of gravitas so that you can be a more effective advocate for resources, so that you can be accountable to (Congress) and . . . the Department of Justice . . . At it’s core, it’s good government to have a confirmed director.’’

Jones’ main detractor Tuesday, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked pointed questions about a whistleblower case lodged against Jones by a career prosecutor at the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis.

“These are serious charges and ones that are of particular concern to me as a known defender of whistle-blowers,’’ Grassley said. “The public interest demands resolution of these issues’’ before Jones’ confirmation can move forward.

In a letter last week, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, the federal unit responsible for whistleblower cases, dismissed the underlying complaint of “gross mismanagement and abuses of authority.’’ The OSC also said the charge that Jones had retaliated against the career prosecutor would go to mediation. Grassley countered that the case against Jones technically remains open.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, laced into Jones for claiming that gun-crime prosecutions are a priority even though the Justice Department’s record of prosecuting felons who fail gun-purchase background checks is lackluster.

Cruz lived up to his reputation for rat-a-tat questioning, trying to pierce through answers he considered obtuse with “is that a yes?’’

Jones said that federal prosecutors target armed career criminals, and that “lying-and-trying’’ cases are given low priority because “prosecutorial resources are thin.’’

Klobuchar rose to Jones’ defense, telling Cruz the violent crime rate in Texas was twice that of Minnesota between 1991 and 2011. As she spoke, Cruz passed behind her chair and looked straight ahead as he walked out of the room.

A longtime target of the gun lobby, ATF has a long history of being underfinanced and starved for resources. It has played the role of poor stepchild of federal law enforcement when compared to its more robust siblings, the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Inadequate resources are a major reason for the lack of sufficient prosecutions or the failure to increase the number,’’ said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wondered aloud what the public reaction would be if the FBI had to wait seven years to have a Senate-confirmed director.

“Don’t you think that that could be used by terrorists to say the United States is weak on terrorism, not doing all it could against terrorism if we had for years an acting director of the FBI?’’ Schumer said. When “people don’t like what the agency does, we somehow get vacancies there, and (nominees are) blocked for a very long period of time,’’ said Schumer, citing the National Labor Relations Board and Environmental Protection Agency as examples. “And I would hope that would change.’’